Gastroenterologist

Gastroenterology

Illustration of the stomach, colon and rectum.
System	Gastrointestinal
Significant diseases	Gastrointestinal cancers, Gastrointestinal bleeding
Significant tests	Colonoscopy, Stool test, Barium swallows, Endoscopy
Specialist	Gastroenterologist

Gastroenterology (MeSH heading) is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders.

Diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract, which include the organs from mouth to anus, along the alimentary canal, are the focus of this speciality. Physicians practicing in this field are called gastroenterologists. They have usually completed about eight years of pre-medical and medical education, a year-long internship (if this is not a part of the residency), three years of an internal medicine residency, and two to three years in the gastroenterology fellowship. Gastroenterologists perform a number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures including colonoscopy, endoscopy, endoscopic retrograde cholangiancreatography (ERCP), endoscopic ultrasound and liver biopsy. Some gastroenterology trainees will complete a "fourth-year" (although this is often their seventh year of graduate medical education) in transplant hepatology, advanced endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, motility or other topics.

Hepatology, or hepatobiliary medicine, encompasses the study of the liver, pancreas, and biliary tree, while proctology emcompasses the fields of anus and rectum diseases. They are traditionally considered sub-specialties of gastroenterology.

Citing from Egyptian papyri, John F. Nunn identified significant knowledge of gastrointestinal diseases among practicing physicians during the periods of the pharaohs. Irynakhty, of the tenth dynasty, c. 2125 B.C., was a court physician specializing in gastroenterology, sleeping, and proctology.